Crazy little thing called love
by cuckoo clover
Summary: Unwinding in the car after a long and toilsome mission was an absolute staple in Sam and Bucky's routine.


A long day of wrangling their current assignment later, Sam and Bucky collapsed into Sam's car.

A pregnant pause brewed as they sat inside, catching their breaths, too exhausted to strike up smalltalk or even utter a small word. Silence unnerved Bucky. He experienced too much of it between his stolen decades as the Winter Soldier. To make up for that, Bucky tapped his fingers on his knee.

"So. Would you like for me to drive back to your place?"

Sam, though he was too exhausted to move much, furrowed his brows. "Nah. We'd have to prepare food, we can eat out tonight."

"But… our dirty outfits? Bad etiquette to stroll so much dirt into a restaurant."

"I've got some wipes and fresh clothes at the back, we can change at the parking lot."

"Ah."

The talk finished and then he found himself inclined to distract himself with something again. With nothing to say, he simply glanced towards Sam.

Bucky admired every curve, every dapple of light upon Sam's visage, but at the sight of a cut on his cheek he frowned.

Sam opened his eyes and glanced over towards Bucky as he reached for the first aid kit in the glove box.

"Shrapnel," he replied. Sam nodded as Bucky drew out the tweezers, the gauze and the bandaid. "This'll hurt so stay still." He leaned close to Sam and pulled out the shrapnel embedded inside of the wound. At the sight that it was only a thin flake no bigger than a thumbnail, Bucky breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Are your tetanus shots up to date?" Bucky asked.

"Yep."

"Swell."

"Swell?"

"Wouldn't fancy that birdbrain of yours to get sick."

"You got any injuries?"

Bucky shrugged. "Few bruises, no cuts. But it should be fine. The soldier serum…" he rubbed the back of his neck, "well, let's just say I've never gotten sick after being injected."

"Ah." And Sam sat back onto the car seat. "Isn't that just... _Swell_," he replied. Bucky raised his eyebrow as Sam grinned.

"Grinning would just push the remaining shrapnel deeper into your cheek, Wilson."

Five minutes later after the wound was cleaned and bandaged, Sam reached for the radio. In a fit of irony, Queen's _crazy little thing called love_ came on. The two partners looked at each other then glanced away. Sam cleared his throat. Bucky drew a deep breath in and exhaled. Soon he cleared his throat too as a fluttery sensation erupted inside his chest.

Sam chose to sat in silence throughout the song. Bucky decided that he had to thank whatever God was up there for the fact that they didn't have to face the unbearable atmosphere inside the car.

With that dilemma out of the window, the song was then reduced to not as a mocking nuisance but as a catchy type of white noise. Soon, Bucky tapped his fingers on his knee as the quiet lilting tune played. He couldn't help it, he quite liked this song. Eventually he shimmied his shoulders a bit to the tune and hummed, until he murmured a quiet:

"And take a long ride on my motorbike..."

Sam threw a glance at Bucky. "You know this one?"

Bucky shrugged, then grinned. "HYDRA made me do a lot of dirty work in the 70s." In truth, he caught up with a lot of songs during his two years MIA, but he wanted to see how long it'd take for Sam to realise this running gag.

"Is that when you decide to grow out hippie hair?"

"I needed to blend in."

"Of course you did." Sam grabbed his phone and turned on Google Maps. "But just to be sure…" he started with a joking lilt, "there's a 70s themed restaurant that plays ABBA and serves ham and bananas Hollandaise 10 minutes from here. Up for a blast from the past, Barnes?"

Bucky wrinkled his nose. "You know what? I was only active during the 70s twice, anyway. See anything else?"

"There's a McDonald's."

"Nah."

"Alright. Three more options. A pho place, an Ethiopian place, and a sushi place."

"Sushi." The recliner on Bucky's chair clicked as he leaned back.

"You're not gonna ask to drive again, James?" Sam asked, as Bucky was in the passenger seat.

James. Now he was in for it. "I'm hungry and tired, I just want sushi."

"Right gentleman you are."

"Super soldiers gotta eat too… Thomas."

"Copycat."

"You started it first!"

Their chuckles continued as Sam revved up the engine.

Something oddly calming washed over him as they listened to corny 70s songs and drove to the nearest sushi restaurant. Even though they were sore all over, even though they were dirty and in need of a shower… Bucky didn't know what they had, Sam and he, but they had each other and for now? That was enough.


End file.
